Tablets and laptops

“Electronics, telecommunications, and information technology retail experienced a difficult year in 2017, as consumers tightened their belts in response to economic difficulties in South Africa,” said GfK.

Sales in the information technology segment declined by 25% in 2017, which was largely due to a “continued deterioration in sales of media tablets”.

This product category saw a sales decline of 40% – to less than 1 million units.

“Large-screen smartphones are cannibalising tablet sales, as users choose to buy a better smartphone rather than a new tablet,” said GfK.

Mobile computer sales also dropped by 15%, and desktop sales fell by 29%.

“Desktop and mobile computer manufacturers continue to address weak sales of their devices by selling more affordable, lower-specced machines with older-generation processors, less RAM, and smaller screen sizes,” it said.

Despite the above, and low-end platforms like the Intel Celeron accounting for over half of the market, sales of devices packing an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 grew during 2017.

Storage and TVs

GfK said storage sales saw good growth in 2017.

This was due to increasing shipments of PCs with SSDs that have low storage capacities – driving growth for external storage.

When it comes to TVs, large-screen TVs and premium models have fared well, thanks to strong Black Friday 2017 sales.

“Despite strong Black Friday sales, the panel TV market for the full 2017 year was flat,” it said.

The report concluded with notes on the speaker market – with loudspeakers reaching a “record-high in sales value during the fourth quarter of 2017”, while home audio system sales dropped significantly during the quarter.